Home Truth

Stuff. Great quantities of stuff. Our house is full of it. Toys we don’t play with. Clothes we don’t wear. Books we don’t read. Gadgets we don’t use. Forgive my negativity: it’s Monday lunchtime and I’ve only just finished sorting through the debris of another chaotic weekend in our house.

It seems to me that consumerism is no longer about buying what we actually need; it is a bug caught by the whole nation, an addiction that needs to be fed, an allure that is seducing us all, including our children. My eight year old daughter displays all the signs of a potential addict: the joy is in the choosing and the buying - mainly shoes, occasionally jewellery, rarely a book or a toy; interest in the item is soon lost once it is in the house.

Actually, as a family, we are not great shoppers. We do not consider it a leisure activity. But nevertheless, a big family acquires a lot of things along the way. And what is the best way of getting rid of excess baggage?

Recycling. Not in the traditional way. I’ll come on to that next time. Let’s put it another way - passing things on. Toys can be given to a friend with younger children, a Doctors’ waiting room, a local Toddler group. Children’s clothes are passed from family to family in this community, as children grow out of clothes long before they are worn out. I love to pass a good book onto someone and tell them to give it to someone else if they enjoy it. And of course, charity shops welcome any donations of this sort.

Passing on, lending, sharing……only when these words enter our vocabulary and thinking can the consumerist overload be reduced. We have a friend who lives alone and travels a great deal. Before any trip, she brings us food that needs using up. She cannot bear to see waste and we enjoy making sure there isn’t any!!

PS: a day after writing the above, I went shopping for a book for my twenty-something nephew’s birthday. And I came across just the thing. “Affluenza” by Oliver James. It says so much more eloquently and in much more detail what I have tried to convey here. I was bowled away. Don’t know whether James will be. Especially as my message in his card was “Hope this hasn’t come too late!”

Filed under: Uncategorized on March 8th, 2007